Agent Rodriguez is a T-800.
He gets parts to increase his health. He can chase down cars on foot. He extrudes parachutes at-will. Bullets only barely slow him down. He is capable of adhering himself to ferrous metals using only his feet. He has a grappling hook gun which has far more winching power than its external mechanism can explain, and launches far more cable than it seems to hold. The same rockets that track vehicles track him, but not NPCs. And to top it all off, most tellingly, he has really cheesy one-liners and a ridiculous accent.- This game is action movie incarnate. That means you have to take all the action movie cliche's into account. Name one thing from that list that doesn't apply to the hero of an action movie.
- More like a T-1000, explains the length of the grapple hook and the parachutes (liquid metal density change), and how Rico just reappears after dying (turns into blob, kills everyone present, goes to nearest base, un-blobs)
Tom Sheldon is Rico's father.
Search your feelings, you know it to be true! Rico Rodriguez is some manner of warlock
Rico Rodriguez shrugs off sniper-rifle shots and farts in the face of physics. He is capable of summoning an infinite number of parachutes out of Hammerspace and his grappling hook is clearly some manner of arcane artefact. The evidence is irrefutable, Rico has at least some manner of control or influence over the laws of Time and Space. Either that or he's some manner of Demigod in human form. Sheldon doesn't hate Russians because he is AMERICAN
He hates them because he was with The Agency during Cold War- Who said they were mutually exclusive?
The Agency has experienced budgets cuts in between games.
In San Espirito, the setting of the first game, the Agency provided Rico with weapons, vehicles, and safehouses for free. In Panau, the setting of the second game, Rico has to buy his own vehicles and weapons. In addition, Tom Sheldon, a fine agent, seems to have taken up the job of a helicopter pilot alongside his usual spy work, hinting at even more staff and budget cuts. For the unrelated 1995 movie, Armstrong is a retired James Bond.
While an obvious jump to conclusions considering Sean Connery's the actor playing both, it actually adds to the film's message. An old spy who developed a healthy respect for life after his gung-ho days in Interpol where he bore the distinction of the double-oh in his code number- signifying his license to kill- decides to become a lawyer and marries a young, intelligent lady and decides to really settle down and become a teacher. It'd also explain how easily Armstrong was lured in by a good mystery, and the willingness to kill Blair saw in Armstrong's eyes.